Format Azure PowerShell cmdlet output

By default each Azure PowerShell cmdlet formats output to be easy to read. PowerShell allows you to convert or format cmdlet output by piping to one of the following cmdlets:

Formatting Conversion
Format-Custom ConvertTo-Csv
Format-List ConvertTo-Html
Format-Table ConvertTo-Json
Format-Wide ConvertTo-Xml

Formatting is used for display in the PowerShell console, and conversion is used for generating data to be consumed by other scripts or programs.

Table output format

By default, Azure PowerShell cmdlets output in the table format. This format doesn't display all information of the requested resource:

Get-AzVM
ResourceGroupName           Name Location          VmSize  OsType               NIC ProvisioningState Zone
-----------------           ---- --------          ------  ------               --- ----------------- ----
QueryExample      ExampleLinuxVM  westus2        Basic_A0   Linux examplelinuxvm916         Succeeded
QueryExample         RHELExample  westus2  Standard_D2_v3   Linux    rhelexample469         Succeeded
QueryExample        WinExampleVM  westus2 Standard_DS1_v2 Windows   winexamplevm268         Succeeded

The amount of data displayed by Format-Table can be affected by the width of your PowerShell session window. To restrict the output to specific properties and order them, property names can be provided as arguments to Format-Table:

Get-AzVM -ResourceGroupName QueryExample |
  Format-Table -Property Name, ResourceGroupName, Location
Name           ResourceGroupName Location
----           ----------------- --------
ExampleLinuxVM QueryExample      westus2
RHELExample    QueryExample      westus2
WinExampleVM   QueryExample      westus2

List output format

List output format produces two columns, property names followed by the value. For complex objects, the type of the object is displayed instead.

Get-AzVM | Format-List

The following output has some fields removed.

ResourceGroupName        : QueryExample
Id                       : /subscriptions/.../resourceGroups/QueryExample/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/ExampleLinuxVM
VmId                     : ...
Name                     : ExampleLinuxVM
Type                     : Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines
Location                 : westus2
...
HardwareProfile          : Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.HardwareProfile
InstanceView             :
NetworkProfile           : Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.NetworkProfile
OSProfile                : Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.OSProfile
...
StatusCode               : OK

ResourceGroupName        : QueryExample
Id                       : /subscriptions/.../resourceGroups/QueryExample/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/RHELExample
VmId                     : ...
Name                     : RHELExample
Type                     : Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines
Location                 : westus2
...

Like Format-Table, property names can be provided to order and restrict the output:

Get-AzVM | Format-List -Property ResourceGroupName, Name, Location
ResourceGroupName : QueryExample
Name              : ExampleLinuxVM
Location          : westus2

ResourceGroupName : QueryExample
Name              : RHELExample
Location          : westus2

ResourceGroupName : QueryExample
Name              : WinExampleVM
Location          : westus2

Wide output format

Wide output format produces only one property name per query. Which property is displayed can be controlled by giving a property as an argument.

Get-AzVM | Format-Wide
ExampleLinuxVM                                  RHELExample
WinExampleVM
Get-AzVM | Format-Wide -Property ResourceGroupName
QueryExample                                    QueryExample
QueryExample

Custom output format

The Custom-Format output type is meant for formatting custom objects. Without any parameters, it behaves like Format-List but displays the property names of custom classes.

Get-AzVM | Format-Custom

The following output has some fields removed.

ResourceGroupName : QueryExample
Id                : /subscriptions/.../resourceGroups/QueryExample/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/ExampleLinuxVM
VmId              : ...
Name              : ExampleLinuxVM
Type              : Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines
Location          : westus2
Tags              : {}
HardwareProfile   : {VmSize}
NetworkProfile    : {NetworkInterfaces}
OSProfile         : {ComputerName, AdminUsername, LinuxConfiguration, Secrets,
AllowExtensionOperations}
ProvisioningState : Succeeded
StorageProfile    : {ImageReference, OsDisk, DataDisks}
...

Giving property names as arguments to Custom-Format displays the property/value pairs for custom objects set as values:

Get-AzVM | Format-Custom -Property Name, ResourceGroupName, Location, OSProfile

The following output has some fields removed.

class PSVirtualMachineList
{
  Name = ExampleLinuxVM
  ResourceGroupName = QueryExample
  Location = westus2
  OSProfile =
    class OSProfile
    {
      ComputerName = ExampleLinuxVM
      AdminUsername = ...
      AdminPassword =
      CustomData =
      WindowsConfiguration =
      LinuxConfiguration =
        class LinuxConfiguration
        {
          DisablePasswordAuthentication = False
          Ssh =
          ProvisionVMAgent = True
        }
      Secrets =
        [
        ]

      AllowExtensionOperations = True
    }
}

...

class PSVirtualMachineList
{
  Name = WinExampleVM
  ResourceGroupName = QueryExample
  Location = westus2
  OSProfile =
    class OSProfile
    {
      ComputerName = WinExampleVM
      AdminUsername = ...
      AdminPassword =
      CustomData =
      WindowsConfiguration =
        class WindowsConfiguration
        {
          ProvisionVMAgent = True
          EnableAutomaticUpdates = True
          TimeZone =
          AdditionalUnattendContent =
          WinRM =
        }
      LinuxConfiguration =
      Secrets =
        [
        ]

      AllowExtensionOperations = True
    }
}

Conversion to other data formats

The ConvertTo-* family of cmdlets allows for converting the results of Azure PowerShell cmdlets to machine-readable formats. To get only some properties from the Azure PowerShell results, pipe to the Select-Object cmdlet before performing the conversion. The following examples demonstrate the different kinds of output that each conversion produces.

Conversion to CSV

Get-AzVM | ConvertTo-CSV
#TYPE Microsoft.Azure.Commands.Compute.Models.PSVirtualMachineList
"ResourceGroupName","Id","VmId","Name","Type","Location","LicenseType","Tags","AvailabilitySetReference","DiagnosticsProfile","Extensions","HardwareProfile","InstanceView","NetworkProfile","OSProfile","Plan","ProvisioningState","StorageProfile","DisplayHint","Identity","Zones","FullyQualifiedDomainName","AdditionalCapabilities","RequestId","StatusCode"
"QUERYEXAMPLE","/subscriptions/.../resourceGroups/QUERYEXAMPLE/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/ExampleLinuxVM","...","ExampleLinuxVM","Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines","westus2",,"System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2[System.String,System.String]",,,"System.Collections.Generic.List`1[Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.VirtualMachineExtension]","Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.HardwareProfile",,"Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.NetworkProfile","Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.OSProfile",,"Succeeded","Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.StorageProfile","Compact",,"System.Collections.Generic.List`1[System.String]",,,"...","OK"
"QUERYEXAMPLE","/subscriptions/.../resourceGroups/QUERYEXAMPLE/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/RHELExample","...","RHELExample","Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines","westus2",,"System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2[System.String,System.String]",,,"System.Collections.Generic.List`1[Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.VirtualMachineExtension]","Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.HardwareProfile",,"Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.NetworkProfile","Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.OSProfile",,"Succeeded","Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.StorageProfile","Compact",,"System.Collections.Generic.List`1[System.String]",,,"...","OK"
"QUERYEXAMPLE","/subscriptions/.../resourceGroups/QUERYEXAMPLE/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/WinExampleVM","...","WinExampleVM","Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines","westus2",,"System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2[System.String,System.String]",,,"System.Collections.Generic.List`1[Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.VirtualMachineExtension]","Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.HardwareProfile",,"Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.NetworkProfile","Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.OSProfile",,"Succeeded","Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.StorageProfile","Compact",,"System.Collections.Generic.List`1[System.String]",,,"...","OK"

Conversion to JSON

JSON output doesn't expand all properties by default. To change the depth of properties expanded, use the Depth parameter. By default, the expansion depth is 2.

Get-AzVM | ConvertTo-JSON

The following output has some fields removed.

[
    {
        "ResourceGroupName":  "QUERYEXAMPLE",
        "Id":  "/subscriptions/.../resourceGroups/QUERYEXAMPLE/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/ExampleLinuxVM",
        "VmId":  "...",
        "Name":  "ExampleLinuxVM",
        "Type":  "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines",
        "Location":  "westus2",
        ...
        "OSProfile":  {
                          "ComputerName":  "ExampleLinuxVM",
                          "AdminUsername":  "...",
                          "AdminPassword":  null,
                          "CustomData":  null,
                          "WindowsConfiguration":  null,
                          "LinuxConfiguration":  "Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.LinuxConfiguration",
                          "Secrets":  "",
                          "AllowExtensionOperations":  true
                      },
        "Plan":  null,
        "ProvisioningState":  "Succeeded",
        "StorageProfile":  {
                               "ImageReference":  "Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.ImageReference",
                               "OsDisk":  "Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.OSDisk",
                               "DataDisks":  ""
                           },
        "DisplayHint":  0,
        "Identity":  null,
        "Zones":  [

                  ],
        "FullyQualifiedDomainName":  null,
        "AdditionalCapabilities":  null,
        "RequestId":  "...",
        "StatusCode":  200
    },
    ...
]

Conversion to XML

The ConvertTo-XML cmdlet converts the Azure PowerShell response object into a pure XML object, which can be handled like any other XML object within PowerShell.

Get-AzVM | ConvertTo-XML
xml                            Objects
---                            -------
version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" Objects

Conversion to HTML

Converting an object to HTML produces output that's rendered as an HTML table. Rendering of the HTML depends on your browser behavior for rendering tables which contain no width information. No custom class objects are expanded.

Get-AzVM | ConvertTo-HTML
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"  "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title>HTML TABLE</title>
</head><body>
<table>
<colgroup><col/><col/><col/><col/><col/><col/><col/><col/><col/><col/><col/><col/><col/><col/><col/><col/><col/><col/><col/><col/><col/><col/><col/><col/><col/></colgroup>
<tr><th>ResourceGroupName</th><th>Id</th><th>VmId</th><th>Name</th><th>Type</th><th>Location</th><th>LicenseType</th><th>Tags</th><th>AvailabilitySetReference</th><th>DiagnosticsProfile</th><th>Extensions</th><th>HardwareProfile</th><th>InstanceView</th><th>NetworkProfile</th><th>OSProfile</th><th>Plan</th><th>ProvisioningState</th><th>StorageProfile</th><th>DisplayHint</th><th>Identity</th><th>Zones</th><th>FullyQualifiedDomainName</th><th>AdditionalCapabilities</th><th>RequestId</th><th>StatusCode</th></tr>
<tr><td>QUERYEXAMPLE</td><td>/subscriptions/.../resourceGroups/QUERYEXAMPLE/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/ExampleLinuxVM</td><td>...</td><td>ExampleLinuxVM</td><td>Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines</td><td>westus2</td><td></td><td>System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2[System.String,System.String]</td><td></td><td></td><td>System.Collections.Generic.List`1[Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.VirtualMachineExtension]</td><td>Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.HardwareProfile</td><td></td><td>Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.NetworkProfile</td><td>Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.OSProfile</td><td></td><td>Succeeded</td><td>Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.StorageProfile</td><td>Compact</td><td></td><td>System.Collections.Generic.List`1[System.String]</td><td></td><td></td><td>...</td><td>OK</td></tr>
<tr><td>QUERYEXAMPLE</td><td>/subscriptions/.../resourceGroups/QUERYEXAMPLE/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/RHELExample</td><td>...</td><td>RHELExample</td><td>Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines</td><td>westus2</td><td></td><td>System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2[System.String,System.String]</td><td></td><td></td><td>System.Collections.Generic.List`1[Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.VirtualMachineExtension]</td><td>Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.HardwareProfile</td><td></td><td>Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.NetworkProfile</td><td>Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.OSProfile</td><td></td><td>Succeeded</td><td>Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.StorageProfile</td><td>Compact</td><td></td><td>System.Collections.Generic.List`1[System.String]</td><td></td><td></td><td>...</td><td>OK</td></tr>
<tr><td>QUERYEXAMPLE</td><td>/subscriptions/.../resourceGroups/QUERYEXAMPLE/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/WinExampleVM</td><td>...</td><td>WinExampleVM</td><td>Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines</td><td>westus2</td><td></td><td>System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2[System.String,System.String]</td><td></td><td></td><td>System.Collections.Generic.List`1[Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.VirtualMachineExtension]</td><td>Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.HardwareProfile</td><td></td><td>Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.NetworkProfile</td><td>Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.OSProfile</td><td></td><td>Succeeded</td><td>Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Models.StorageProfile</td><td>Compact</td><td></td><td>System.Collections.Generic.List`1[System.String]</td><td></td><td></td><td>...</td><td>OK</td></tr>
</table>
</body></html>